Anthony DiComo's Mets MLBlog

Bay not quite in the fast lane

There was a time when pitchers would cringe at the thought of feeding Jason Bay fastball after fastball. But with Bay completely out of whack at the plate, that is precisely what they are doing.

In Wednesday’s loss to the Reds, pitchers Johnny Cueto and Arthur Rhodes threw Bay a total of 13 fastballs and four sliders. Normally, that would be a recipe for disaster against one of the game’s foremost fastball hitters. But not now.

“The funny part is I’ve been seeing more fastballs because I can’t hit them,” Bay said.

Now hitless in his last 15 at-bats, Bay has to hit for the Mets to win. But manager Jerry Manuel said he has no plans to drop Bay lower in the lineup.

“We’re going to try to ride it out as long as possible,” Manuel said. “He has a history of being somewhat streaky. Hopefully he can get on one of those good streaks when he goes home.”

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The mets can win even if bay is not hitting and i’ll tell you how.
first of all, the most important man in the lineup is jose reyes. the two things he once did best are not present in his game. first, he seems to be pressing and is hitting way to many pop ups. if he could just go back to just making contact, the long ball will come. though he has had missed alot of chances to drive in our one and two hitters, that would change with him hittiing over .300 like he has before. second, he has never been a station to station baserunner but he is now. over and over our announcers have wondered out loud why he is not running in situations that both favor it and call for it. the word seems to have gotten around that he is’nt running like before and so pitchers don’t feel much pressure any more to throw mostly fastballs. the lack of these two facets in his game have a detrimental effect on our whole lineup because together they allow pitchers to get away with less quality pitches throughout our lineup. his resurgence in these two areas (along with the same quality pitching we are currently getting) could result in more wins in close games

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